Steelers QB Coach Mike Sullivan Back in Contention for Raiders Job

The Las Vegas Raiders are not hiring Kliff Kingsbury as their next offensive coordinator after talks between Kingsbury and the team broke down, according to Ian Rapoport. Now, Kingsbury could land the Commanders offensive coordinator job, but this opens up the job for Steelers quarterbacks coach and play-caller Mike Sullivan, who interviewed for the gig in Las Vegas.

Jeremy Fowler backed up some more reporting and said the Washington’s Eric Bieniemy and Pep Hamilton interviewed for the job on top of Sullivan, which could be the direction they end up going.

Sullivan has been the Steelers’ quarterbacks coach since 2021, and was promoted in-season to also become the team’s primary play-caller after the firing of offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

Sullivan and interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner were not considered by Tomlin to be Canada’s full-time replacement. 

“I’m looking at outside candidates and lining up the pecking order there,” Steelers head coach Tomlin said. “I am appreciative of their efforts in terms of what they did for us down the stretch. But I’m looking for outside candidates at this juncture.”

It’s not clear what happened with Sullivan if he doesn’t land either of the open OC positions he has interviewed for. The Steelers could bring him back as quarterbacks coach, or the team could reach a mutual parting of ways to avoid any awkwardness between Sullivan and his new boss, Arthur Smith.

It’s assumed that Smith will want to bring in at least some of his own staff members, but the only vacancy created so far this offseason on the offensive side of the ball has been the departure of analyst Glenn Thomas.